Regular Joe's Guide

Latest visit: May 2023 (Amarillo - W. Amarillo Blvd @ Tascosa) First visit: Jul 1981 (Amarillo) We blew through New Mexico and into the panhandle of Texas. As we were beginning to circumvent the Amarillo traffic I noticed Taco Villa. I mentioned to JL how great they are. How about a quick snack? We both were on the same page. It's been 5 years since we left DFW, and that's the last time I had Taco Villa goodness. I ordered 3 crispy tacos. Happy to say everything is as good as I remembered it (except the price of course...). The salsas, the meat, and the piled high cheese. And JL absolutely *loved* them. He mentioned it a few times on the trip. We have a new convert!  Now for some chain news: There are 5 locations in Amarillo; 5 in Odessa; 3 in Midland; 1 each in Andrews, Big Spring, Canyon, and Hobbs, New Mexico for a total of 17. They exited the DFW market not long after we left in 2018 (did we keep them in business?). ---4/19/18 update (Fort Worth) I often would eat at Tac...

Today's post comes courtesy of Mr. Music. He asked that I post this on his behalf. Before we get to that, just a quick note that Mrs. RJG and I love to go to Jimmy's and buy homemade Italian sausage. We usually get 6 pounds, 3 of the sweet/mild and 3 of the spicy. That'll usually last us a few months. We have yet to try their deli for a meal though. Obviously, after reading Mr. Music's description below, we need to consider that pronto. Though it's tough to be that far down in Dallas and not go to Pietro's... --- Last Saturday Mrs. Music and I took the kids for a ride to Jimmy’s Food Store. From Denton, it is quite a ride to East Dallas, but it was a nice day and I had not been in that neighborhood for awhile. I’ve been to restaurants all around Bryan and Fitzhugh and have heard about Jimmy’s for years, but for some reason never made it down there. I finally made a solid decision after recently falling in love with their homemade sausage on a pizza at ll Can...

Last visit: Mar 2022 (Colorado Springs - Promenade) First visit: Oct 2009 (Denver - DTC) I've been a bit hard on the Smashburger chain, only in that it's so transparent that business comes first, food second. Though in theory one concept should help the other. But just to evaluate the restaurant on the burger alone (I had the double), it does standup well with peers like In-N-Out and Five Guys. I had no need on this visit to try the fries again, and I would have loved to divulge in a shake, but I had other priorities this day. Besides, I tend to cringe when fast food meals start to cost $15 or more. Smashburgers are sloppy and salty, but very flavorful. I also enjoy their secret sauce which is different than the usual Thousand Island dressing. All in all, a worthy fast food option, though not worth seeking out if traveling, more as a matter of convenience. As it turns out, my prediction for the NE Tarrant location came true and it is no longer in business. There are currently 5...

Apr 1, 2022 update: Pretty amazed we never did get back here. The Preston Center location was the first to the DFW market (still open), and admittedly was too far for a quick visit. However they were just about to open a location in Southlake - and then we moved back to Colorado. And surprisingly that location didn't make it. What's going on in Southlake? Everything seems to have closed (just noticed Five Guys as well). For my former location, they did open also in Euless, so that would have been convenient too. For us, they have 2 locations in Denver, so I might stop in during a day of record shopping while up north. Total, the chain exists in Texas (22); Arizona (2); Colorado (2); Tennessee (2); and California (4). First visit: Jan 2013 (Dallas - Preston Center) Many of you will probably remember my series on Keller Goes Burgers and Beer last January and February. In the timespan of a month, downtown Keller ended up with four new establishments cashing in on this concept. Nam...

Mar 31, 2022 update: FastTaco is still going strong in the southern reaches of Fort Worth, with 4 locations in Joshua, Cleburne, Burleson, and Crowley. Our former NE Tarrant location closed many years ago. Last visit: Jan 2013 (North Richland Hills) First visit: Jan 2012 (North Richland Hills) Jan 2013 update: A few folks have asked me to reconsider my vote on FasTaco, per my initial request. And since the place seems to be doing a decent business, and they're locally owned, why not give it one more shot? My quick observations are this: The restaurant is very clean, and the owners are incredibly friendly. I thought the taco meat tasted better than prior, and the shells were crispy - and this time they didn't skimp on the cheese! I tried the beefy burrito per recommendation, and though the meat of course was good, I didn't care much for the soft chewy tortilla. The salsas are still a big problem for me. The red is way too plain, and the green - while having enormous potenti...

There are currently 10 locations in the Fort Worth area, including the 2 NE Tarrant stores in Hurst and Watauga. According to Wikipedia (because their Location tab is no bueno) there are 47 locations in Texas, one each in New Mexico and California. Last visit: Jan 2013 (Hurst) First visit: sometime in 2003 (Hurst) Some quick updates here on Rosa's. First off, interesting to note that Taco Villa itself is now in the DFW area (in Benbrook). This is my first revisit since I wrote the below review - almost exactly 4 years ago. I decided to go back because the place seems to be popular still, and maybe I'm just not ordering the right thing? So this time I tried a chicken fajita burrito. What a joke. It was practically the size of a taquito, with a mushy tortilla and tough chicken. Seriously I would've needed 4 of them to fill me up. But I passed on that temptation since quite frankly it wasn't good. At all. The salsa bar is still there, and their chile de arbo...

First visit: Jan 2013 Lone Star Bar-B-Que is seemingly a mix of my last two posts: Barbecue - but near the intersection of Western Center and N. Beach in far north Ft. Worth. We have two of our official nieces (ages 20 and 13) in from Denver today, and so Mrs. RJG took the girls out to clean out our bank account for a day of shopping, thus leaving Mr. RJG on his own for lunch, perhaps the last one until I head over to a loan officer. Seeing that my meeting schedule was wide open, I took advantage of the situation for a completely "new to the RJG" place. And I let Urbanspoon be my guide today. And as a random choice, none other than Lone Star Bar-B-Que popped up. It seemed very popular with prior visitors, and 'cue sounded good, so off I went to points west. What you first notice about Lone Star Bar-B-Que is this isn't some dive in the hood, or a country shack where a 5 toothed guy named Otis asks "Whadya hav'?". It's actually prett...

The location I wrote about below is gone, but they still exist by Eagle Mountain Lake as well as Benbrook. Mr. Music has a well established review already there for that location, so we'll leave it. First visit: Dec 2012 And this will be our final restaurant to report on from 2012. And while on that topic, I'm going to attempt to keep up throughout 2013 (ohhh... I've heard that before!), something I've failed to do since I started this blog in 2008. So I needed a solution to this dilemma, as I know my schedule will not always allow for blogging. After some thought, one way to keep up is to update posts as I go, rather than get plowed under from a mountain of paperwork. And with that in mind, I plan on doing updates to each former post, on their original post date. This way I can clean the site up as I go - very slowly. So how do I accomplish such a feat? By adding a tag/label. If you want to keep up where the RJG goes to eat, then click on the 2013 update label ...

First visit: Dec 2012 And now we finally get to the end of the RJG Restaurant week ('bout time!). Well... actually we closed it out on the weekend, appropriately enough, with our bi-annual visit to the RJG's all-time favorite restaurant Pietro's . I'm usually a bit reticent to write about barbecue, since there are many proclaimed (and self-proclaimed) experts on the topic roaming around the blogosphere here in DFW and environs. One of the blogs that we have linked to the right of what you're reading here is actually a published author on the topic (Full Custom Gospel), from no less an authority than Anthony Bourdain. And barbecue has never been my specialty, so what do I know right? And besides, Full Custom hasn't written about this yet, so maybe I can sneak one in... Whatever my street cred may or may not be, I can honestly assess what I personally enjoy. And after one visit, Black Diamond skyrocketed to the top of my barbecue list. I'll need a few mor...